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Archive for tag "electric mobility"

Let’s get started. We are presenting the best smart green startups in energy, mobility and cities that have lots of traction. One after the other, we’ll be adding more startups including their most recent pitch videos on our YouTube channel Ecosummit TV. We think that these startups represent exciting business opportunities for buyers and sellers as well as investment opportunities for (C)VCs and family offices. Some of them have the potential to become smart green unicorns, others already did an exit but continue to be innovative business partners for utilities and other corporates. To get our attention pitch at the next Ecosummit and give an update on your startup to accelerate your growth and increase the number of term sheets in your next financing round.

Ecosummit TV: Paul Leibold pitches Adaptive City Mobility and its City Etaxi at ECO14 Berlin. The capital efficient strategy for developing a new electric vehicle is a value web of strong partners that contribute technology, people and capital to co-develop a new car and co-create a new market. That’s exactly what Paul did when he brought together Vispiron, Roding, BMZ, Heinzmann and Fraunhofer ESK in 2012 to work on his dream of an electric taxi optimised for smart green cities. The partners jointly invested €10M and received funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The City Etaxi is a lightweight 3 seater that supports battery swapping and reaches 80 km/h. Now Paul looks for investors and ambitious city managers that want to support pilot projects with connected etaxi fleets.

Ecosummit TV: Although he didn’t leave our sponsor dinner as the first guest the night before, Knut Hechtfischer delivered his best pitch at ECO14 Berlin so far. Ubitricity has got a great story that is acknowledged by an increasing number of VCs and industry experts. This year Ubitricity entered Cleantech Group’s 2014 Global Cleantech 100 – next to 7 more startups that pitched at Ecosummit in the past. Moreover, the Berlin-based smart green startup won EDF Germany as strategic investor and has got a product ready for market. Ubitricity wants to make smart charging affordable by enabling mobile metering in the virtual power grid. They bring together electric mobility and mobile electricity in a very simple, yet powerful way. The key idea is to put the intelligence into the charging cable. This allows for a cost reduction of 90% when installing smart sockets (thin charging stations) in street lights, garages and any other place you can imagine. In 2015, Ubitricity rolls out in Germany and we are curious to see how EV drivers, fleet operators, municipalities and utilities adopt this smart charging service.

Ecosummit TV: This year Ecosummit partnered with Tesla Motors to provide Model S test drives and first-hand insight into the automotive future invented in California. Following a 100% electric strategy since its foundation in 2003, Tesla forces the big automakers to accelerate their electric transformation, too. In February, Philipp Schroeder joined Tesla from Sonnenbatterie and now manages sales and business development in Germany and Austria. At ECO14 Berlin, Philipp agreed that Tesla is on its way to become the most valuable car company in the world. When we wrote about the super hero of the smart green economy in May 2011, Tesla was valued at $2.6B. Now it has a market cap of $30.6B and expects to deliver 33.000 cars to its customers in 2014. BMW, the German car maker with the strongest electric mobility strategy thanks to the purpose built EVs i3 and i8 and the inhouse carbon fiber production, is valued at $60.3B delivering 2 million cars this year (BMW investor presentation Nov 2014). When Tesla’s Model III, priced at $35.000, starts racing against the BMW 3 series in 2017, we will find out quickly how car drivers really think when making their next purchase decision.

Ecosummit TV: Alexander Zosel gives an update on the development of their electric Volocopter VC200 at ECO13 London. E-volo was founded in 2011, was funded by the founders with €450K and raised €1.2M in an amazing crowdfunding round on Seedmatch in November 2013. Moreover, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy granted €2M to contribute to the multi-company project development budget. The first unmanned test flight of the 2-seater VC200 was carried out on 17 November 2013 in Karlsruhe. Currently, E-volo works on the temporary certification from the German aviation authority for their ultralight aircraft (maximum takeoff weight of 450 kg) to start manned test flights. Initially targeting the aerial sports market E-volo has the vision to become a global market leader for urban aviation in the next 10 years. Risk-friendly VCs that love high-tech made in Germany and electric aviation should get in touch with Alex. Full disclosure: Ecosummit is one of E-volo’s crowd investors.

Ecosummit TV: Knut Hechtfischer pitches Ubitricity at ECO13 Berlin. The Berlin-based cleantech startup develops a cost-efficient charging solution for electric vehicles by putting the intelligence into the charging cable. This allows mobile metering wherever the user wants to buy electricity from. Recently, they became famous for integrating their solution in street lights. Up to now, Ubitricity raised €5.4M and is backed by Earlybird, IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Heinz Dürr (largest shareholder of Dürr, former CEO of AEG and Deutsche Bahn). Founded in 2008, Ubitricity plans to launch Mobile Metering in 2014, just-in-time when new electric cars hit the market. Meet Knut at ECO13 London next week to get an update and learn about their high risk, high return investment opportunity. That’s what venture capital is all about, isn’t it?

Ecosummit TV: Electric mobility on 2 wheels grows a lot faster than on 4 wheels. Dirk Dens pitches Govecs at ECO13 Berlin and shows how Govecs is surfing this VC-friendly trend. The Munich-based late stage startup is backed by Gimv and makes very cool electric scooters that are manufactured in Wroclaw, Poland. Govecs makes scooters not only for consumers but also for companies, especially urban delivery services. The new trend is scooter sharing and Govecs recently started the first project together with Ecooltra in Barcelona. If Govecs continues to execute its strategy well, they may be an exit candidate rather soon.

Ecosummit TV: Fabienne Herlaut pitches Ecomobilité Ventures at ECO13 Berlin. The Paris-based multi-corporate VC is focused on investing in sustainable mobility startups in Europe. Ecomobilité Ventures is financed by French national railway operator SNCF, mobile telephone operator Orange and energy company Total. The €25M fund is invested in 3 startups: Move About, EZ‐Wheel (ECO13 London) and Ouicar. At the moment, Fabienne works on new investments into promising startups as well as expanding the financial muscle of Ecomobilité Ventures with the help of more corporate limited partners. We are proud to have Fabienne among our Ecosummit Advisors and look forward to meeting her again at ECO13 London next week.

Ecosummit TV: Alexander Zosel pitches E-volo at ECO13 Berlin. The German cleantech startup develops an electric helicopter that will revolutionise urban aviation within the next 10 years. The Volocopter is developed by a consortium of companies and universities that received a €2M grant from the German government. Moreover, the German aviation authority defined a new class of aircraft specifically for the Volocopter. As of today, E-volo plans a slow market entry with a pre-series of 10 Volocopters in 2015. As the new electric helicopter category is a potential multi-billion market opportunity, E-volo will soon realise that they need to raise substantial amounts of venture capital to guarantee high-quality production on the ground as well as safety in the air. For now, they continue their startup rock’n’roll pioneering electric aviation and inventing new PR stunts.

Ecosummit TV: Konstantin Artemyev pitches Bravo Motors from Russia at ECO13 Berlin. Konstantin is 27 years old, founded and still owns an IT security startup and comes from Astrakhan near the Caspian Sea. In 2011, he founded his second startup Bravo Motors which is very similar to Hiriko as they also develop a foldable electric city vehicle. However, Konstantin and his talented team built the first prototype with just $200K, a fantastic achievement and proof of their engineering genius. Now Bravo Motors wants to raise $4M to further develop the eTrike and start series production. Bravo Motors just won the Skolkovo Startup Village competition as well as the Ecosummit Award 2013 Facebook Silver medal. We believe Bravo Motors is one of the most promising cleantech startups in Russia.

Ecosummit TV: Rastislav Lauko pitches Greenway from Slovakia. The Bratislava-based smart green startup provides an electric mobility transport service for corporate customers. Their full-service approach uses converted transporters that get an electric motor and battery swapping system. This investment is worthwhile as the transporters travel on fixed daily routes at least 70.000 kilometers per year. Greenway’s EVs have a reach of 200 km and the battery swap takes less than 7 minutes. Bankrupt Better Place should take a look at this Eastern European startup and their very focused business strategy. As Greenway has got their first customers they now want to raise €3M to scale their business in Slovakia and prepare market entry in Austria and Czech Republic.

Ecosummit TV: First the bad news: after burning $850M in 6 years Better Place files for bankruptcy. That’s not what you call a lean startup. The electric mobility operator had to accept that car makers don’t support a global startup standard for switchable batteries. Now the good news: peer-to-peer ride sharing startup Lyft raises $60M for global expansion from Andreessen Horowitz. To fight off the professional taxi and limo driver lobby, Lyft drivers get donations rather than payments from their riders. But VCs love transactions whatever they are called, especially if they smell like Airbnb on the road. Here in Europe, we eat humble pie. At ECO12 Düsseldorf, Fabienne Herlaut (Ecomobilité Ventures) discusses profitability with Alexander Zosel (E-volo), Oliver Lünstedt (Carzapp), Klaus Dibbern (Flinc) and Thomas delos Santos (Innovative Mobility). Some inspiration from the US may help.

Ecosummit TV: Alexander Zosel pitches E-volo at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012. The German startup develops a new type of electric helicopter called Volocopter. While in the US you don’t need a special license to fly the 1-seater Volocopter, the German aviation authority plans to create a new class of aircraft specifically for the Volocopter. Personal electric aviation will be a totally new market and E-volo is a worldwide aviation pioneer. They celebrated the first manned flight with a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft on 21 October 2011. Backed by the 4 founders and a €2M grant from the German government, E-volo looks for adventurous VCs in Europe and the US.

Ecosummit TV: Oliver Lünstedt, CEO of Carzapp, pitches the German p2p car sharing startup. While there are already 3 peer-2-peer car sharing startups in Germany, Carzapp is the first one to have developed their own hardware solution called ZappKit. The ZappKit enables wireless car access with smartphones used as digital keys. The magic hardware box also includes GPS and an immobiliser that prevents theft. Moreover, the Berlin-based startup has an idea for the cost-efficient rollout of electric cars and participates in the electric mobility showcase Berlin-Brandenburg by adapting their platform to support p2p electric car sharing. Carzapp is backed by angels and looks for €1M to enter the German market in the first half of 2013.

Ecosummit TV: Not many people have the guts to found an electric vehicle startup these days. Thomas delos Santos, CEO of Innovative Mobility, is one of them. His pitch at Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012 provides the full story behind the electric microcar called Colibri. The Colibri will be unveiled at the auto show in Geneva in March 2013. The light electric vehicle (LEV) for city dwellers will cost €8.9K plus monthly battery leasing costs of €55. Colibri shall hit the market in 2015 and can be pre-ordered in 2014 – provided that Thomas manages to raise the rather large funds needed for series development and production. We cross our fingers as we want to see the smart green Colibri on the street.

Ecosummit TV: At Ecosummit Düsseldorf 2012, Fabienne Herlaut, Managing Partner of Ecomobilité Ventures, presents her multi-corporate fund which is focused on investing in ecomobility startups in Europe. Ecomobilité Ventures is financed by French national railway operator SNCF, mobile telephone operator Orange and energy company Total. While the €25M fund is still young, it already invested in 3 sustainable mobility startups: Move About, EZ‐Wheel and Ouicar. Fabienne is looking for a fourth corporate investor from the automotive industry, preferably from Germany. At the same time, she is always interested in meeting fundable ecomobility startups that look for smart green investors with industry expertise.

Ecosummit TV: Knut Hechtfischer pitches Ubitricity. The Berlin-based startup wants to disrupt the charging infrastructure game for electric vehicles (EV) by rolling out low-cost electric sockets. The concept is called mobile metering and is based on putting the intelligence into the charging cable rather than the charging station. Ubitricity is an ambitious Lean Cleantech Startup that develops and produces a lean and cost-efficient product together with a value web of suppliers. We look forward to enjoying Knut again on stage at ECO12 Düsseldorf.

Only successful cleantech startups have a positive impact on climate change and global resource problems. The problem is that most hardware-based cleantech startups are very capital and time intensive. Entrepreneurs and investors constantly look for new strategies to accelerate the development and marketing of smart green innovation. Applying the lean startup philosophy to cleantech could be the perfect solution. Cleantech startups also search for scalable business model, product market fit, validated learning from customers and engine of growth. In this context, it was a special honour to go to Japan – especially after Fukushima – and speak about Lean Cleantech Startup at the spectacular New Context Conference Tokyo 2012 two weeks ago.

“Our goal is to become the largest provider of clean distributed energy in the world.” Elon Musk, super hero of the Smart Green Economy, is doing it again. As Chairman and biggest shareholder, Elon prepares for his third IPO after PayPal (2002) and Tesla Motors (2010) and positions Solarcity as the smart green utility of the future. Solarcity just filed for its long-awaited Initial Public Offering on NASDAQ by registering the Form S-1 with the SEC. While IPO date, volume and share price are to be defined, reading this investment prospectus is highly recommended. Update: On 27 November 2012, the price range ($13 to $15) and the volume (10.065.012 shares) was announced (S-1 Amendment 27.11.12).